My bad, I think I was confused because we hardly saw the teams together last night and Leah and Fran look similar when not paying attention.

No worries. Like I said, easily done. I at least have the advantage of taking notes for the blog which I can always refer back to afterwards! (Plus I write very fast - always helpful.)

I was suprised that on You're Fired they didn't make a joke about the PMs looking pretty similiar too...

Kurt has seemed lethargic for a couple of weeks now and I wonder if the punishing schedule and sleep deprivation were getting to him, or whether he was just down after showcasing his milkshakes on the horse/dog/cow task had backfired. He seemed more animated on You're Fired.

I'm not sure how punishing these tasks are, they seem to do 1 a week then get 3 or so days off. Granted they have to work long hours when on task, but they're young they should take this in their stride.

Can Slouching confirm the task schedules?

I heard it was quite intensive, like a task every few days

One a week is hardly punishing at all.

My understanding - and it's no more than that pieced together from previous interviews and some common sense - is that the supposedly 12-week process takes more like two and a bit months to film. I haven't ever been bothered to check that closely, but a little work with Google to look up exhibition dates etc should quickly give an indication.

If we assume 2 months is correct, even then there's a lot of down-time. We know that most tasks take between 1 and 3 days to film, with the overseas task perhaps taking a bit longer to allow for travel and so on. Tag on a day at the front of each task so we can see the candidates waking up in the house at the start of each task, and that means every task occupies 2-4 days of time.

Let's say the average is 3, for sake of argument. That's 36 days - five weeks. Even if we assume an average of 4 days per task that's 48 days - 7 weeks.

It's not unreasonable to assume that the candidates are typically doing 2 tasks per week in many places.

There are also gaps in the shooting schedule, because some tasks have to be timed around specific events (an exhibition, a beer festival etc) and the producers also need to work around Sugar's, Hewer's & Brady's personal schedules. This means the boardroom scenes aren't always shot on the same day as the task - sometimes this is obvious, at others less so because, say, Sugar has a function to go to on such and such a day so the filming gets delayed by a day.

The candidates also don't live in the house for the entire duration of the process. I understand there are planned breaks in the process where candidates are allowed to go home for several days in one block.

My guess is that the actual duration of the process will vary from series to series, but 8-10 weeks is probably a reasonable bet.

All the above is informed conjecture, but conjecture nonetheless. I'm too lazy to do the hard research on this one! Maybe someone else has better info?

The task schedule is roughly two tasks a week with one day off.

I don't think it's quite as straightforward as that. Scheduling is rarely that simple - it's not a school timetable, after all - but in principle you're right.

I'm aware. In general though, that's what they try to stick to. Obviously some tasks run longer than others, but the "formula" will most likely be a day off every second task.

I think that's right. I've been led to understand they also get one or two longer breaks (5-6 days) in between to go home and visit family (remembering that not many of them are from London). We've had a few single mums and such over the years - an occasional longer break would seem sensible, no? After all, this isn't BB (thank God).

Plus, if he bought Myles back in for not selling, then that undermines his position as he didn't sell either, plus had decision over the incorrect product choices, meaning he would get fired before Myles.

Alex I think was safe whatever happened, because I think LS likes him, so Kurt should have chosen Natalie and Leah about not being very enthusiastic with the sellers (they lost both so it is clearly their fault), because even without the big products, the other time outsold Kurt's 2:1

I think if Kurt had taken them both in the boardroom in light of the revelation that he brought Leah to help sell the retro-camper as 'eye candy' he would have faced accusations of sexism, as had Zee. Natalie wouldn't have missed that opportunity for attack.

It often turns out that way. However, it could have turned out that no-one sold a big ticket item, in which case the smaller items would be crucial.

Also, I don't think it's really random. It seems kinda obvious that you should prioritise the big ticket items, but on this occasion Kurt decided to have 2 people selling those and 3 people selling the minor stuff. Which was always stupid.

Taking back both Natalie and Leah for the loss of their preferred items hangs on two crucial questions. First, would Nick back him up, or would be blame Myles, whose schmoozing he had already described as nauseating?

Second, since Kurt was not at these pitches, he'd be depending on what Myles had told him during those long hours not selling campervans. Did Myles blame both women or just one of them? If any.

True, but the moment a big-ticket item is sold the importance of the accessories becomes much less. In essence, the moment Jason made his sale it became a battle of the campers.

There's a degree of randomness in EVERY task, just as there is in real business. But my point is that with this one it was particularly so because the impact of one big sale either way has a massive impact on the result. So much depended on whether the right customers visit the show on that particular day, something the teams have no control over. Unlike, say, the farm shop task, there isn't a high footfall of 'real' customers, just lots of browsers. How many people are in the market for a £17k camper van on any given day? Only a handful.

I don't think Kurt was being stupid at all. I suspect there was probably something in the task brief that dictated that that teams had to start the day with 2 on one stand and 3 on the other. Remember, there are a lot of rules placed on the teams that we're not told about. What wasn't made clear was whether Leah was in addition to Kurt and Myles for the final hour, or whether she perhaps too Kurt's place.

Plus wasn't there only 2 of the caravans/retro caravans so if they had 3 sellers it may of got a bit hectic.

Two. Maybe three.

The teams were interviewing the vendors on Thursday (from the voiceover) and the folding tent/trailer guy told us they'd sold 11 since Tuesday and the campervan (or caravan disguised as a campervan) people had sold six.

So Tuesday to Thursday afternoon gives us two or three days, or just over two campervan sales a day. Nearer three if your late-in-the-day theory means Thursday's quota had not yet been sold.

Kurt's (and Alex's) choice was, therefore, defensible, although it would have involved a degree of perjury, since clearly they'd actually made the choice on personal preference; not to mention faster thinking under pressure than Kurt has shown before.

As I recall, we see her talking to the two men about her prospective sale, so I'm pretty sure they were allowed to have 3 people selling the high ticket items.

The scouse guy what was fired sold nowt.

He was soooooo lame, he was like just standing there and going yeh they are nice.

BAM the scousers gone.

You obviously have a thing about people from Liverpool going by your 2 posts.